Neelkanth Mishra is a Managing Director, co-head of Asia Pacific Strategy and India Strategist, Securities Research for Credit Suisse. He has been rated among the best analysts in India by the Institutional Investor and Asia Money polls. He has been member of or an advisor to several government committees like the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, the Fifteenth Finance Commission and the FRBM Review Committee. He also advises businesses, and has been part of the Economic Advisory Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry for the past few years. He is a widely followed columnist in prominent newspapers and magazines. Neelkanth has worked on Metals & Mining, Indian Pharmaceuticals, Taiwan IC design, semiconductor foundries and Asian tech strategy research, based out of Mumbai, Singapore and Taipei. Prior to joining Credit Suisse, he was a Senior Technical Architect with Infosys Technologies. He has also worked with Hindustan Lever Limited and has been an entrepreneur.
Neelkanth is a gold medalist from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, graduating in computer science and engineering, and a Distinguished Alumnus Award winner. He was ranked fourth in the prestigious entrance exam to the IITs. He is currently based in Mumbai.
Indermit Gill is Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions at the World Bank. Between 2016 and 2021, he was a professor of public policy at Duke University and non-resident Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. Gill worked at the World Bank from 1993 to 2016, where his assignments included Director of Development Policy in Development Economics; Chief Economist for Europe and Central Asia; Staff Director for the 2009 World Development Report on Economic Geography, Acting Chief Economist for East Asia and the Pacific; and Principal Country Economist for Brazil. He has published extensively on issues of middle-income countries, developing country debt, economic growth, managing natural resource wealth, labour markets and inequality. His pioneering work includes developing the concept of the “middle income trap” to describe how developing countries can stagnate after reaching a certain level of income.
He has a Ph.D. and A.M. in economics from the University of Chicago, an M.A. from the Delhi School of Economics, and a B.A. in economics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi. He has taught at Duke, Georgetown University, the State University of New York at Buffalo and the University of Chicago.
Junaid Ahmad is the Country Director for the World Bank in India. He joined the World Bank’s Delhi office on 1 September 2016. He was formerly the Chief of Staff to World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. Prior to joining the President’s office in January 2016, Junaid was the Senior Director for the Water Global Practice, a position he held since the creation of the Global Practices in July 2014. Junaid spent 10 years in the field, first as the Deputy Resident Representative and Principal Economist in Johannesburg, and then as Regional Team Leader of the Water and Sanitation Program in New Delhi. In 2004, he was a team member of the World Development Report (WDR): Making Services Work for Poor People. From 2004-2008, he was the Sector Manager for Social Development in South Asia Region and subsequently for Urban Water & Sanitation before taking on the latter responsibility for the Africa Region in 2010. He was also the Director for Sustainable Development in the Middle East and North Africa Region, a position he held from 2012-2014.
He holds a PhD in Applied Economics from Stanford University, an MPA from Harvard University, and a BA in Economics from Brown University.
Karthik Muralidharan is the Tata Chancellor’s Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Fellow and Board Member of the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD), a Board member and co-chair of the Education program at the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), an Affiliate at the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), and a Research Affiliate with Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA). His research spans development, public, and labor economics with a focus on improving the effectiveness of public spending in the social sector (education, health, and social protection programs). His research program is characterized by large-scale randomized experiments conducted in partnership with governments to study the impact of programs and policies at scale. He received his bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University (summa cum laude), an M.Phil. in Economics from Cambridge University (ranked first), and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University.
